To increase engagement, it helps to understand exactly what each of these are and where to measure them.

By tracking your engagement, you’ll be able to see trends, which will allow you to navigate your twitter approach and make adjustments where you need to.

Measuring Engagement Through Twitter Analytics

Twitter has its own analytics section that is completely free to use. You can track each area of engagement by day, or any custom date range to see how you are doing overall. You can also track engagement by tweet to see which types of tweets are gaining more traction.

You can reach this area in Twitter’s Analytics by clicking on “tweets”, and then clicking on the particular tweet that you’d like information on.

Let this guide your tweet content and times of tweets. As you use trial and error with different types of headlines and times that you are tweeting, you’ll notice differences in your rate of engagement. Pay attention to this and adjust where necessary.

You’ll also notice this screen shot includes the amount of impressions (how many people you were capable of reaching with this tweet). Reach is another area of your strategy you’ll need to measure. We talk about this more in How to measure your social media strategy.

Favorites Are Positive Feedback Tools and Points of Reference

As a user, you can favorite a tweet to let the author know that you liked it, and also use a favorite to save the tweet for later reference for yourself. Other users can see what you’ve favorited if they go to your profile, however, most users won’t check out your profile. They are mostly watching for tweets.

Favorites are a nice pat on the back for us marketers. Measuring favorites are important because it’s positive feedback to our efforts. It will also mean that if your article is favorited, most likely, it has been clicked on as well.

Here’s an example of an overall favorites graph for the past 28 days.

Clicks Tell You That People Are Interested In Your Message

Measuring the amount of clicks on your article will tell you how interested people are in what you’re posting.

Play with the wording and tone in your headlines. You might even try placing your links in the middle of your headline instead of the end. Use headlines that elicit action as well as headlines that make people laugh. You’re surrounded by waiving tail feathers. You’ve got to be direct, concise, intriguing, and offer value in your headline.

Retweets Extend Your Reach

Retweeting someone’s post means that you are sharing the post with your audience. If your article is retweeted, it feels like someone gave you a box of lucky charms with extra marshmallows. It is extra exposure for you.

You basically send out a tweet and hope for the best. If others pick it up and share it with everyone they know, that’s the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The more exposure you have, also known as reach, the more likely you are to earn clicks and favorites. With increasing your reach and engagement, you increase the likelihood of reaching conversions from your efforts.

Mentions & Replies Help Give You Social Credibility

Mentions occur when someone uses @username within a tweet. Replies occur when someone selects the reply button on a tweet. In both cases, the person whose username/tweet was used will receive a notification that someone was mentioning/replying to them.

You cannot view tweets that mention someone on their profile, but you can search for @username in the twitter search bar to see this information.

If someone mentions or replies to you, it will appear on your notifications>mentions tab. If you are following the user, it will also appear on your timeline.

Mentions are great, assuming they are positive ones, because it is more exposure and engagement for you. Anything that gives you more social credibility will only help you to build trust with those who are listening.

Types of Tweets That Get More Engagement

There’s no exact equation to follow in order to elicit more tweets. Very often, it is about saying the right thing, at the right place, at the right time. If you mention something that just happens to be trending, well then, you can likely expect engagement.

Along with timing, you’ll want to be sure that you are tweeting at the peak times that your audience is on twitter. Only trial and error and tracking will give you this information.

Generally, what elicits the most twitter engagement (favorites, clicks, retweets, mentions) at SurveyGizmo are tweets where we establish the immediate value of clicking on the article within the headline, headlines that use humor, headlines regarding upcoming SurveyGizmo events (Like when our CEO spoke at Boulder Startup Week), and also tweets that use relevant pictures (like when we tweeted a picture of our Mimosa Content Meeting).

Make sure that you are in touch with what your audience wants to hear. To see which topics your Twitter audience is interested in the most, head to the followers section of Twitter Analytics. That’s what you’ll want to tweet about. If you’re just starting out with building your audience, then be sure to get an understanding of what appeals to your target market.

Retweets & Mentions: Heavy Lifters Of Twitter Engagement Strategy

The bottom line is: retweets and mentions are the muscle that help you to gain more favorites and clicks. They spread more awareness of you and your posts. Retweets and Mentions basically get you free followers. These should carry the most weight in your tracking because these help you to cast a wider net, faster than you could yourself.

You want people to favorite you so that they click on your link and continue to reference you.

You ultimately want users to click your article links so that they see you as a credible source of information. This helps to keep you in their minds for when they are in need of your services.

These engagement metrics are also a barometer for how interested your audience is in what you’re putting out there. If users aren’t engaging, you’ll want to talk about something else!

Heidi is a content marketer for MarketerGizmo and SurveyGizmo. She has a B.A. in Psychology and is always intrigued by neuroscience and anything that drives behavior. She is an appreciator of yoga, improv, and meaty marketing content. If she didn’t have to work for a year, she’d go study yoga with Ana Forrest and Shiva Rea.You can connect with her on Twitter @SurveyYogini.

MarketerGizmo’s goal is to provide marketing tools and information that allow marketers to become more agile, increase their marketing intelligence, and empower them to excel professionally. Find out more about us.